Allan Graham, known also as Toadhouse, (born 1943 in San Francisco, California) is a contemporary American artist based in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. His work includes

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

, and

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

Biography

Graham studied at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

and

San José State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State Universit ...

before moving to

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

(1967). His early paintings were wall-like grids which, in the mid to late 1970s, developed into more open compositions with sweeping arcs and herring-bone patterns. In 1983, he abandoned conventionally shaped canvases in favor of eccentric forms and began leaving the stretcher bars exposed. By the mid-1980s this had evolved into a series of painting-sculpture hybrids, using wood, canvas, newspaper and book pages, which resembled certain African works. These were followed by near-monochromes on bent canvasses, sculptures made of books and irregularly circular paintings using book pages from sources such as a

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

''Bible'' and

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * ''Inferno'' (1980 film), an Italian ...

. In the 1990s, he painted a series called "Cave of Generation", which consisted of steps leading into large monochrome and two-tone paintings. These were followed by a series titled "Pre-hung (for those who suffer form)" which consisted of single and double doors painted with a palette knife.

Toadhouse

In 1990 his work began to appear under the pseudonym of Toadhouse, which came from an underground structure he and his son built in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which attracted toads. The works under the Toadhouse name are word based. In one series he pasted bumper stickers with haiku like slogans on re-chromed car bumpers. In his Cosmo-logical and UFO series, he used tiny words written in graphite. In an interview done with Graham in ''

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is an American publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics, based in Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, critics, and ...

'', art critic

John Yau John Yau (born June 5, 1950) is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, ficti ...

said: In addition to physical artwork, two books of Toadhouse poems have been published: ''Shit Floats Life Goes On'' (Toadhouse, 1990) and ''Visual Eyes, Translations from Toadhouse'' (Ethan J. Wagner, San Francisco, 1991). His poems have also appeared in ''In Company, an anthology of New Mexico poets after 1960'' (University of New Mexico Press, 2004).

Influences

Graham has been influenced by

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

and

Buddhist poetry Buddhist poetry is a genre of literature that forms a part of Buddhist discourse. Origins The first examples of Buddhist poetry can be found in traditional scriptures such as the ''Dhammapada'', according to which, Siddhārtha Gautama (the foun ...

. A large installation piece titled Time is Memory, which appeared in SITE Santa Fe, included sixteen

zafus A ''zafu'' (, ) or ''putuan'' (, pronounced ) is a round cushion. Although also a utilitarian accessory, it is best known for its use in zazen Zen meditation. Name Although ''zafu'' is often translated as "sewn seat" in American English, the m ...

in front of which were placed famous Buddhist death poems. He has also cited

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than 60 books. He is associated with the Black Mountain poets, although his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. Creeley was close with Charle ...

as an influence. The latter was also part of a video, poetry, photo installation project called “Add-Verse” which he did in conjunction with artist

Gloria Graham Gloria Graham (born 1940) is an American artist based in New Mexico. Her work includes sculpture, painting, and photography. Background Graham received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Baylor University in Waco, Texas (1962) and attended the Univers ...

, his spouse.

Public collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

, Buffalo, New York, United States *

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

, Denver, Colorado, United States * Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City, New York, United States *

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, Atlanta, Georgia, United States *

Museo Cantonale d'Arte Museo may refer to: * ''Museum'' (2018 film), Mexican drama heist film *Museo station Museo is a Naples Metro station on Line 1. It opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. On 27 Ma ...

(now

MASI Lugano The Swiss–Italian Art Museum (), commonly known as MASI Lugano, MASILugano or MASI, is an art museum predominantly featuring 20th-century and contemporary art in Lugano, Switzerland. Since December 2019, the museum has two locations, one in the ...

), Lugano, SvizzeraMuseo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano: Allan Graham
/ref> * Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy * Museum of Albuquerque, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States *

Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico, United States. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located one block off the historic Sa ...

, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States *

Pérez Art Museum Miami Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Maurice A. Ferré Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Cent ...

, Miami, Florida, United States *

Roswell Museum and Art Center The Roswell Museum (formerly Roswell Museum and Art Center) was founded in 1936 and is located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. The museum features exhibits about the art and history of the American Southwest The Southwestern United S ...

, Roswell, New Mexico, United States * Sheldon Memorial Art Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States *

University of New Mexico Art Museum The University of New Mexico Art Museum (sometimes referred to as the University Art Museum or UNM Art Museum) is an art museum at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The museum's permanent collection includes nearly 30,000 objects, makin ...

, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States * , Varese, Italy

Notes

References

External links

"Allan Graham official website"
portfolio website of Allan Graham {{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Allan 1943 births Living people 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American male artists American conceptual artists American male poets American male sculptors American video artists American modern painters American postmodern artists San Francisco Art Institute alumni San Jose State University alumni Sculptors from California Sculptors from New Mexico